Our mission with Ubuntu is to deliver, in the cleanest, most economical and most reliable form, all the goodness that engineers love about free software to the widest possible audience (including engineers :)). We’ve known for a long time that free software is beautiful on the inside – efficient, accurate, flexible, modifiable. For the past three years, we’ve been leading the push to make free software beautiful on the outside too – easy to use, visually pleasing and exciting. That started with the Ubuntu Netbook Remix, and is coming to fruition in 12.04 LTS, now in beta.

For the first time with Ubuntu 12.04 LTS, real desktop user experience innovation is available on a full production-ready enterprise-certified free software platform, free of charge, well before it shows up in Windows or MacOS. It’s not ‘job done’ by any means, but it’s a milestone. Achieving that milestone has tested the courage and commitment of the Ubuntu community – we had to move from being followers and integrators, to being designers and shapers of the platform, together with upstreams who are excited to be part of that shift and passionate about bringing goodness to a wide audience. It’s right for us to design experiences and help upstreams get those experiences to be amazing, because we are closest to the user; we are the last mile, the last to touch the code, and the first to get the bug report or feedback from most users.

Thank you, to those who stood by Ubuntu, Canonical and me as we set out on this adventure. This was a big change, and in the face of change, many wilt, many panic, and some simply find that their interests lie elsewhere. That’s OK, but it brings home to me the wonderful fellowship that we have amongst those who share our values and interests – their affiliation, advocacy and support is based on something much deeper than a fad or an individualistic need, it’s based on a desire to see all of this intellectual wikipedia-for-code value unleashed to support humanity at large, from developers to data centre devops to web designers to golden-years-ganderers, serving equally the poorest and the bankers who refuse to serve them, because that’s what free software and open content and open access and level playing fields are all about.

To those of you who rolled up your sleeves and filed bugs and wrote the documentation and made the posters or the cupcakes, thank you.

I’m very serious about loving the recent changes. I think I’m a fair representative of the elderly community ………. someone who doesn’t particularly care to learn new things, but just wants things to make sense. I think we’re there! Lance

You’ll be as delighted with the coverage of Ubuntu for Android at MWC in Barcelona last week:

“one of the more eye-catching concepts being showcased” – v3“sleeker, faster, potentially more disruptive” – IT Pro Portal“you can also use all the features of Android” – The Inquirer“I can easily see the time when I will be carrying only my smartphone” – UnwiredView“everything it’s been claimed to be” – Engadget“Efficiency, for the win!” – TechCrunch“phones that become traditional desktops have the potential to benefit from the extra processing power” – GigaOM“This, ladies and gentlemen, is the future of computing” – IntoMobile

Free software distils the smarts of those of us who care about computing, much like Wikipedia does. Today’s free software draws on the knowledge and expertise of hundreds of thousands of individuals, all over the world, all of whom helped to make this possible, just like Wikipedia. It’s only right that the benefits of that shared wisdom should accrue to everyone without charge, which is why contributing to Ubuntu is the best way to add leverage to the contributions made everywhere else, to ensure they have the biggest possible impact. It wouldn’t be right to have to pay to have a copy of Wikipedia on your desk at the office, and the same is true of the free software platform. The bits should be free, and the excellent commercial services optional. That’s what we do at Canonical and in the Ubuntu community, and that’s why we do it.

Engineers are human beings too!

We set out to refine the experience for people who use the desktop professionally, and at the same time, make it easier for the first-time user. That’s a very hard challenge. We’re not making Bob, we’re making a beautiful, easy to use LCARS ;-). We measured the state of the art in 2008 and it stank on both fronts. When we measure Ubuntu today, based on how long it takes heavy users to do things, and a first-timer to get (a different set of) things done, 12.04 LTS blows 10.04 LTS right out of the water and compares favourably with both MacOS and Windows 7. Unity today is better for both hard-core developers and first-time users than 10.04 LTS was. Hugely better.

For software developers:

A richer set of keyboard bindings for rapid launching, switching and window management

Pervasive search results in faster launching for occasional apps

Far less chrome in the shell than any other desktop; it gets out of your way

Much more subtle heuristics to tell whether you want the launcher to reveal, and to hint it’s about to

Integrated search presents a faster path to find any given piece of content

Full screen apps can include just the window title and indicators – full screen terminal with all the shell benefits

… and many more. In 12.04 LTS, multi-monitor use cases got a first round of treatment, we will continue to refine and improve that every six months now that the core is stable and effective. But the general commentary from professionals, and software developers in particular, is “wow”. In this last round we have focused testing on more advanced users and use cases, with user journeys that include many terminal windows, and there is a measurable step up in the effectiveness of Unity in those cases. Still rough edges to be sure, even in this 12.04 release (we are not going to be able to land locally-integrated menus in time, given the freeze dates and need for focus on bug fixes) but we will SRU key items and of course continue to polish it in 12.10 onwards. We are all developers, and we all use it all the time, so this is in our interests too.

We care about efficiency, performance, quality, reliability. So do developers and engineers. We care about beauty and ease of use – turns out most engineers and developers care about that too. I’ve had lots of hard-core engineers tell me that they “love the challenges the design team sets”, because it’s hard to make easy software, and harder to make it pixel-perfect. And lots that have switched back to Ubuntu from the MacOS because devops on Ubuntu… rock.

The hard core Linux engineers can use… anything, really. Linus is probably equally comfortable with Linux-from-scratch as with Ubuntu. But his daughter Daniela needs something that works for human beings of all shapes, sizes, colours and interests. She’s in our audience. I hope she’d love Ubuntu if she tries it. She could certainly install it for herself while Dad isn’t watching 😉 Linus and other kernel hackers are our audience too, of course, but they can help himself if things get stuck. We have to shoulder the responsibility for the other 99%. That’s a really, really hard challenge – for engineers and artists alike. But we’ve made huge progress. And doing so brings much deeper meaning to the contributions of all the brilliant people that make free software, everywhere.

Again, thanks to the Ubuntu community, 500 amazing people at Canonical, the contributors to all of the free software that makes it possible, and our users.

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83 Responses to “… for human beings”

[…] … for human beings For the first time with Ubuntu 12.04 LTS, real desktop user experience innovation is available on a full production-ready enterprise-certified free software platform, free of charge, well before it shows up in Windows or MacOS. It’s not ‘job done’ by any means, but it’s a milestone. Achieving that milestone has tested the courage and commitment of the Ubuntu community – we had to move from being followers and integrators, to being designers and shapers of the platform, together with upstreams who are excited to be part of that shift and passionate about bringing goodness to a wide audience. It’s right for us to design experiences and help upstreams get those experiences to be amazing, because we are closest to the user; we are the last mile, the last to touch the code, and the first to get the bug report or feedback from most users. […]

I am not using Ubuntu, because Unity’s design is good only to watch a movie, get email, chat and browse webistes, it’s not suitable for any professional work (~40 windows – mostly terminals – open? No click-launcher-to-minimize kills productivity, gnome-shell does it a lot better) or games (WINE + Compiz doesn’t work well).

But I really appreciate what you’re doing to open source community. Application indicators, music store, ubuntu one – this is what Open Source needs. Keep it up!

Firstly I want to say that I am not trolling in this post because I have some criticisms I want to make. But this is only because I use Ubuntu every day and I feel heavily invested in it.

The progress and innovation you discuss here is very encouraging but there are glaring issues that still are manifest in 12.04 right now. Let me just ask how is the consistency coming along? Is the Libre Office global menu finally integrated? How about the overlay scroll bars in Firefox? Is there still the push for the ‘precise’ and consistent user interface across the default application selection that has been promised for the last two release?

There has been a huge push for quality and this has built up expectations (perhaps unreasonably). I just hope that the hype meets the product and it doesn’t come back to haunt Canonical. Yes there is some very nice progress, but to call the release ‘Precise’ when arguably the two most used applications (Firefox and Libre Office) are not consistent with the look and feel of the rest the desktop is border line crazy. And because this is an LTS release it will remain like this for the next 5 years, or is there plans to retroactively fix this with a point release?

Do we or do we not have a note taking application as default now? Has it been decided if Tomboy is being replaced by anything else now Mono has been ripped out of Ubuntu? What is happening with the extra 50 MB of space available that was promised at the last UDS? How about using this for a short Video tutorial that explains what Ubuntu and FOSS is and perhaps offers to setup your Ubuntu one, Gwibber and mail accounts and perhaps gives an overview how Unity works for new users? A nice easy tutorial would prove a godsend for millions of people not familiar with Ubuntu. In the old Linspire there used to be something like this. Perhaps 2 Megabytes could also be spared for the Ubuntu manual to be available by default in documents folder?

One of my biggest issues with this release is the removal of Tomboy, it is such fantastic software and I am sad that it has been ripped out of Ubuntu to please the Mono haters. I just can’t see it as being a size issue now. Couldn’t it of been replaced by Gnote at least? Both Windows and OSX have a default note taking application installed out the box. I do realise Ubuntu does not have to use one for one software equivalents to its competitors but it really is such a basic and arguable essential addition to the OS especially given how well it works with Ubuntu one.

Undoubtedly the 12.04 release looks prettier than its predecessor but has less useful applications installed by default. Why was a calendar never installed in Thunderbird… This was talked about in the specification for Thunderbird when Evolution was removed from the default install? Something like this would be ideal for sinking your Android telephone and Google accounts with.

Again I am no trolling but a lot of people are going to be looking at the 12.04 release and comparing against the forth coming OS X and Windows 8 releases. As a community we can almost accomplish anything and we have strengths our competitors will never have. We just need to focus on areas that add real value to the product and help promote that all important first impression to the millions of new users that will experience Ubuntu through this coming release.

I am a student admin for a lab used by Electrical Engineering students, who is tasked with deciding whether using Unity is the way to go for the next upgrade cycle coming June. I love unity and I really hope 12.04 fixes bugs more than anything. The first thing the students want is ccsm and thats like the number 1 breaker of Unity. I am leaning towards KDE cause of the bugs, but depending on how 12.04 goes, we’ll see.

Frankly I started using Linux as noobs. Like many other I used to like Linux Mint, since it works out of the box. Then after using it for sometime and learning more about Linux, I realzed that many distros are using Ubuntu as base. It had to happen that why not try Ubuntu directly. Frankly, I tried 11.10 but at that time did not like Unity. I don’nt have any hitch in saying I am not that expert that i can mold Unity according to my need, like other advance users. But after reading more and more about Ubuntu, I started keeping my eyes on the development of 12.04 and its features. I am now using Ubuntu 12.04 beta 1 (in Vb). Tried 12.04 alpha also, but could not able to use it properly (my mistake). I have to say that Unity has come a long way from 11.10. Speed and response is much better even in VB. It has almost reached the point where it can become perfect. But then again, its up to users some like it, some don’nt. For making it more better some suggestion would be from my side (newbie):-

> As one user said above clicking on launcher for minimizing the application and showing it again would be of great help.
> On right clicking on ‘Dash’ it shows application, files & folders etc., which can also be accessed through ‘Home Folder’ on launcher. The purpose at ‘Dash’ on right clicking is not solved. If on right clicking it shows all older menu options like accessories, media, internet, graphics etc, and on clicking it shows the applications, the problem for many users like me will be solved, and it may save some extra clicking.
> Extra clicking : If I want to see my internet or system applications etc., first I have to click on dash, then second icon at the bottom (with home icon), then on filter results and then on the desired section. This problem can be solved, by my second suggestion, or if on first clicking on dash, if it also starts showing accessories, system etc. on the right side (as it shows after three clicking), it may be of great help and would definitely make Unity much better.

Well these are only suggestions. I would request that please listen to the users as an message or impression is going on that you don’nt listen to the users. I know every users wish can’nt be implemented, but if there is some constructive suggestion, it should be accepted. Its just a request.

In the last, right now I am enjoying 12.04 although its in beta. Tried to report some bugs, but I am not an expert, so sometime leave them in the middle.

From Ventrical:
To leave out http://www.ubuntuforums.com from the installer slideshow is like peanut butter without jam, salt without pepper! We, the ubuntuforum community, spend tireless, selfless hours scouring the internet looking for fixes and patches and statistics, crunching numbers and surrendering our machines to the rocket exhaust as which we know is Ubuntu, downloading endless daily installs and .iso files often paying high dollars for usage out of our own pockets which is even difficult in this global economy, and yet , we do it with joy, with zeal and with an endless ethusiasm to make Ubuntu, not just better, but ‘the best’!!
If Ubuntu and Canonical cannot consider itself the best OS for human beings in the world today then they should honestly get out of the buisness. We at Ubuntuforums are the best! We work the hardest, we are adventurers and experimenters and white hatted hackers (and a few black hats too) . We are bold in our assumptions and quick to render workarounds. We do not put bugs to sleep, we awaken them and renew them and we resolve them, even against all odds from the steeled repositories, we take the tempest on… even when there is immense difficulty and endless lines of code, we do not become despondent but , rather, continue to take on the new problems always with renewed introspection and regards.
I would hope Ubuntu and Canonical would return those same regards to it testers, it’s beloved newbies and all the members at Ubuntuforums.org.
Kindest Regards,
Ventrical

Great stuff! Glad to see Ubuntu regaining some of its momentum again. I’m currently enjoying 10.04, but will look seriously into 12.04. I hope unity eventually outclasses gnome-2, because it doesn’t look like gnome-3 is going to…

Unity is re-inventing the desktop and more, much better than putting a new coat of paint on a Windows 95 type of interface. It’s my opinion that Unity has all of the potential to put Linux in the mainstream. I was very impressed seeing the full Ubuntu desktop on an Android phone and the television interface was equally impressive. It is a very smart move, not putting all the eggs in one basket and it demonstrates some creative thinking towards the future. It is really nice to see open source making some headway and in the end, all Linux users will benefit. I am looking forward to the final release of Ubuntu 12.04 and have been enjoying the development cycle very much. I am also looking forward to seeing Unity evolve. I like the fresh ideas I am seeing and it is the key to success.

Firstly im still in on which way to go with the unity as i like the old Gnome 2 version as to me it gave me more scope on what i wanted in a Operating systen to where i can have it set the way i like it

Now it seems to me that its getting more like a Windows system and it seems that the people are telling me that i have to do it this way but i realise they are trying to keep use safe from from all the bad things on the net but isnt that a choice of the end user and how he wants setup

like when the choice of running as Root was taken away from the normal user or made hard to implement

i always thought that any linux was supposed to be “for human being” but to me that is slowly been taken away for “Human being do as i tell you”

i realise im only 1 man with a opinion but i have been using linux way back sine the redhat days when it was all text and have seen many changes

Thank you for making Ubuntu available to all! I have been using and enjoying Ubuntu since version 7.10 and I recently installed 12.04, which runs nearly perfectly. I must admit that at first I was not a big fan of Unity, but as I have used it over time, I have come to greatly like and appreciate it and now prefer it over Windows and Mac OS X desktops.

Also, I just wanted to say that the Ubuntu on Android idea is brilliant and I see a huge potential there. Best wishes to you and keep up the excellent work!

I really appreciate what you’re doing with Ubuntu, giving it a driving purpose and all. I’m excited about throwing Ubuntu TV onto one of these ARM/USB/HDMI sticks that are fairly popular right now and getting Ubuntu on my next phone.

These projects all use Unity 2D, though, which uses QT, while the premier Unity 3D desktop uses Compiz and is fairly GTK dependent. Why don’t you ditch the two code bases and just move everything over to QT for 12.10? I’m sure your life would be easier.

You’d even have the opportunity to develop some awesome flagship apps in QT.

I’ve got to be honest in that I’m coming to the Ubuntu world quite late compared to a lot of the people who have been giving you feedback on the latest developments to reach an even wider audience. What has been attracting me to learn even more and contribute to the open source momentum is pretty much summed up in the third paragraph of your blog post. Reading this, the intention of your message, was truly an inspiring moment for me as I also believe in the positive impact this work can have in the world. This is what is attracting me to the community, and I’d like to relay to folks that have been in it a while that the effects of your efforts are still quite palpable and fresh, even if you work through the “work” of it everyday.

That said, thanks to you all for what you are doing, and thank you Mark for putting your efforts into such a positive vision of the future. It is working.

@Mark, Hi. Been a long time since i posted on your blog. I would like to bring to your notice the following issues.

1. Can U improve your relationships with the GNOME group(devs and the community)
2. I would re-iterate that you should run behind the corporate world for the “financial” aims which u had with GNU/Linux
3. The desktop and the mobile world is nearly saturated. You are late for both the worlds.
4. Ur “GNU/Linux for human beings” philosophy does not hold for running Ur Ubuntu on Damn Costly “Dual core” phones/tablets. Instead I would suggest you should invest in the OLPC project and come out with a “real” low cost “computing” device.
5. U not allowing Ubuntu to run on the Raspberry pie calls for a “Boo”
6. I dont know whose desktop U want to occupy or reclaim. I would love to know ur target audience, who would upgrade their OS and see that it will result in some or the other issues.

Thanx for your continued interest(financial) in GNU/Linux. I wish u the greatest returns.

[…] Microsoft wants you to love Metro. Apple is bringing iOS and Mac OS X closer together with every release. But, Mark Shuttleworth, founder of Ubuntu Linux and its parent company Canonical, thinks that if you want “real desktop user experience innovation” … “before it shows up in Windows or MacOS,” you need to check out Ubuntu 12.04’s forthcoming Head Up Display (HUD). […]

I have used Unity since 11.04. At the beginning, I did not like it because it is troublesome when switching between windows (i.e. applications). Later I found out the way to unhide the launcher, then I start to enjoy using Unity.

[…] Microsoft wants you to love Metro. Apple is bringing iOS and Mac OS X closer together with every release. But, Mark Shuttleworth, founder of Ubuntu Linux and its parent company Canonical, thinks that if you want “real desktop user experience innovation” … “before it shows up in Windows or MacOS,” you need to check out Ubuntu 12.04’s forthcoming Head Up Display (HUD). […]

[…] Microsoft wants you to love Metro. Apple is bringing iOS and Mac OS X closer together with every release. But, Mark Shuttleworth, founder of Ubuntu Linux and its parent company Canonical, thinks that if you want “real desktop user experience innovation” … “before it shows up in Windows or MacOS,” you need to check out Ubuntu 12.04’s forthcoming Head Up Display (HUD). […]

Well said Mr. Shuttleworth! I must confess that I am a critic of Unity, since 11.04, but your words in this post, had helped me decide to give it another chance in 12.04. I have a virtual machine with 12.04, for 1 month now, and I use it at least 30 minutes daily for browing and check out my twitter, but with the “old” gnome-session-fallback; I’ve reported several bugs already. I’m using Ubuntu since 4.10, big fan of the quality of the product and releases every 6 months; yes, I am an engineer, but not so human being 🙂 gadgets in trayicon or multiple panels in multiple monitors, and taskbar are things I can’t hardly live without, but I promise to give a new try to Unitiy, when it comes with the final release of 12.04. FYI 11.10 was the first Ubuntu version I did not install on the first week of its launch, I’m currently using Linux Mint, I decided to give it a try after the removal of Gnome Classic from Ubuntu’s desktop, I found out about fallback mode a little too late. Thank you for changing the way normal people sees Linux, and for making us, the geek ones, more comfortable.

Mark, I should say I am thrilled. After being a long time Conectiva User, I became an Ubuntu User almost 7 years ago, with Ubuntu 5.04 launch. It made finally switch from Windows to Linux and I never get back. Windows is/was fine. Ubuntu was productive.

[…] Microsoft wants you to love Metro. Apple is bringing iOS and Mac OS X closer together with every release. But, Mark Shuttleworth, founder of Ubuntu Linux and its parent company Canonical, thinks that if you want “real desktop user experience innovation” … “before it shows up in Windows or MacOS,” you need to check out Ubuntu 12.04’s forthcoming Head Up Display (HUD). […]

Well I did add what I thought was a very positive post a couple of days ago but was deleted or caught by that Akismet thing.

I was using ubuntu in one form or another since Hoary Hedgehog. Since Unity came along I have moved to other ubuntu flavours, mainly Kubuntu.
Not that I hate Unity, quite the opposite, I think it is the way forward but just never feels ready for me.
Everytime it does finally feel ready, some odd design change is made which completely sours it and I stick with KDE for another release.

once again I have been testing the dev release and Unity feels the most natural to use, for the most part but doesn’t feel “right”.

Over the past year or so I have changed the way I use my desktop. My needs have changed a lot and Unity is probably the most fitting thing for them.

Unfortunately, like I said I think some strange changes are made at times dodge and it isn’t just choices that have been made but what might be made in the future.
Am I going to be in constant cycle of getting used to something only for it to be drastically altered or changed and having to get used to something different every single release?
It feels like it is only geared to appealing to the new user and you are only a new user for one release.

I am at a big crossroads at the moment and not sure if I can continue with linux. If I do it will be with Unity/ubuntu but will that be because it is the best choice for me or because it is the least worst?
Either way, this next release will probably decide if my future stays with linux for another 10 years or finally moves me away from it.

My biggest piece of advice to you would be to use dev releases for making decisions as to what goes in to ubuntu/unity and stick with it.
Don’t put things into a final release only to take them out a release or two later. It just alienates many people but hey, if you get a new user for every user you lose, what does it matter?